1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to an implement for loading and separating the litter bases normally found in poultry houses.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A typical poultry house has a flat dirt floor on which about six inches of litter material, such as sawdust, wood shavings, rice hulls or cut wheat straw, is evenly distributed before starting the baby chicks on feed and water. After six to eight weeks of feeding and watering, the 20,000 to 40,000 birds in the house will have contaminated and encrusted the litter material.
In the past, the house was cleaned occasionally by removing all the litter from the floor, and replacing it with fresh litter. In the interim, additional litter was added periodically, and the depth of accumulated used litter would raise the effective floor height substantially between cleanings.
The machine described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,897,183 enabled one for the first time to separate the waste portion of litter from the clean portion. That machine automatically loaded the waste portion into a storage or holding container, while returning the clean portion to the floor of the poultry house.
Litter reconditioning machines use a scoop or loader to pick the litter up off the floor. The litter is not necessarily loose: excrement or water may have consolidated the litter particles, or at least an upper portion thereof, into a solid mass which must be broken up before it can be collected.
Another problem is that it is difficult to clean poultry house floors right up to the walls, because protrusions such as pillars and wall studs get in the way of most machinery. It would be advantageous to have a machine which avoided such obstacles automatically.
An object of the invention is to break up caked poultry house litter so that it can be properly handled and screened.
A further object is to provide an implement which automatically follows the contour of litter house walls, and moves the litter away from the walls so that it can be collected.
These and other objects are met by a device for breaking up caked litter on the floor of a poultry house, as described in detail below. The device includes a rotary rake having flat tines which extend along radii perpendicular to the axis of the rake, and which are aligned at an angle oblique to the radial plane of the rake.